FNDC vs GWX

FNDCASchwab Fundamental International Small Company Index ETF

GWXAState Street SPDR S&P International Small Cap ETF

In short

FNDC Schwab's contrarian cut of international small caps: instead of letting share price set position size, FNDC weights roughly 1,600 developed-market small companies by fundamental measures of size, which bakes in a value tilt.

GWX A 2007-vintage way to own the small stuff overseas: about 2,100 developed-market companies, filtered by a hard USD 2 billion size ceiling written right into the index name.

Stated mandate

FNDC The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return of an index measuring small non-U.S. developed-market companies according to fundamental size and weighting.

GWX The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the total return performance of the S&P Developed Ex-U.S. Under USD2 Billion Index.

Why people hold it

• FNDC Weights companies by fundamental measures of size rather than share price, so a stock's weight does not climb simply because the market bid it up.
• Roughly 1,600 names spread across developed markets outside the US. Broad enough that no single small-cap story drives the fund.
• Trading since 2013 and now a multi-billion-dollar fund that stays inside its lane: developed-market small companies, no drift into emerging markets or larger caps.
• At 0.39%, one of the better-standing implementations in a peer group where the typical fund charges about the same.

• GWX The size cut is absolute, not relative: developed ex-US companies under USD 2 billion, so the portfolio stays in genuinely small territory instead of drifting up with the market.ssga.com
• About 2,100 holdings spread across developed markets outside the US, so no single company or country carries the fund.
• Trading since 2007, it has one of the longer track records in international small caps, spanning the 2008 crash and everything since.
• A plain index tracker with no style drift: what it holds lines up with the mandate it advertises, and it sits in the upper half of its peer group.

Worth knowing

• FNDC The fundamental weighting costs extra: plain cap-weighted siblings SCHC and VSS charge 0.06% against 0.39% here.
• A value tilt means results can diverge from standard cap-weighted international small-cap indexes for long stretches, in either direction.
• Cash comes in lumps: distributions are annual or semiannual, not monthly, and the fund trades moderately rather than like the category's busiest names.

• GWX The 0.40% fee sits right at the category median, but broad rivals like VSS and SCHC charge a fraction of that.
• Small foreign companies are a bumpy corner of the market, and the mandate says nothing about hedging, so the dollar moves your returns too.
• Moderately traded rather than a volume leader in its category, which can mean wider spreads than the busiest funds in the group.

Full FNDC profile⁠

Full GWX profile⁠